Ryanair’s Boeing 737-800s with Latest Sky Interior

Published April 9, 2016

For many consumers, Ryanair’s famously low prices came with the unwanted garish interior cabin replete with bright yellow hues and a distinct lack of leg room. For previous critics of the popular low-cost Irish airline, most will be pleased to learn that Ryanair has decided to upgrade the interior design that greets customers when they walk inside the plane for the first time on newly delivered aircraft.

Ryanair’s Old Cabin Interior

The delivery of the first planes of the large order of Boeing 737 aircraft gave Ryanair a chance to address issues surrounding their previous yellow cabin interior furnishing. The previous cabin interiors used bright yellow headrests, yellow overhead bin doors, and some interior walls painted yellow too.

Redesigned Cabin Interior

The new Sky Interior from Boeing is attractively designed, without being flashy or overstated. This is being used along with some tweaks to be consistent with the Ryanair branding.

The seating has been designed to be slimline and is predominantly blue in colour – three seats on each side of the aisle – with the Ryanair logo on the front of each headrest and a surrounding yellow trim. Being more lightweight, the seats take up less space in the cabin. The side-walls and inner window reveals have been re-sculpted; plus the windows are larger to afford better exterior views.

The overhead bins have been reconfigured to swivel up and reposition in a higher location when closed which provides more headroom space when standing up from the aisle seat. The passenger controls above the seating area is more logical with light controls positioned directly next to the actual lights and the flight attendant call button is in a separate location with a different colour to make it stand out. The carpeting matches the colour of the seating too.

The lighting should get a special mention here. There is a long and wide LED lighting arrangement on the ceiling which illuminates the cabin in a soothing (?!) manner. There are several colours that can be chosen – white, blue, and grey – which illuminate the cabin in different hues. The cabin staff can use the gradient lighting controls to create a different ambience for each phase of flight, such as times of the day, drinks or dinner serving times, etc. Furthermore, new LED strips on either side of the aisle flooring light up at night too.

More Leg Room

The slimline seats take up less space for each row of seating. This leaves more leg room for passengers with the new Sky Interior furnishing. This fact alone will have many Ryanair passengers cheerful about increased comfort during their longer European and African-bound flights.

Interior Updates For Other Aircraft in the Fleet

Existing non-MAX aircraft in the Ryanair fleet will also be getting a retrofit to change their interior to be similar, but not identical, to the new interior design. The emphasis will be on creating a look which is more blue and white, and distinctly less yellow, throughout the cabin in keeping with the Sky Interior from Boeing. For passengers taking early morning flights on little sleep, the interior colour change will be considerably more pleasant on the eyes.

Increased Competition

The competition in the low-cost airline industry is fierce with price cuts and deals being offered as low as £1 for some flights, before airport taxes are added on.

The updated interiors for existing aircraft and the purchase of new Boeing 737-800 aircraft with their Sky Interior is a way to provide a more pleasurable flying experience to create better word of mouth than Ryanair has experienced lately.

The early feedback on social media has been overwhelmingly positive. Some people have pointed out that they never had an issue with the leg room with the previous cabin configuration, whereas other Ryanair customers are pleased with the modification to the colour scheme. Either way, the airline is clearly on to a winner with the changes which will no doubt help improve their brand image in the eyes of potential and existing customers.